


Can I Be Close to You?

by colormyheartred



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Lieutenant Duckling, Lieutenant Killian Jones, Princess Emma Swan, Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-04
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-13 01:28:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7956838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colormyheartred/pseuds/colormyheartred
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stubborn Princess Emma and extremely reluctant lieutentant/temporary guard Killian are stuck together during a storm. Lieutenant Duckling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can I Be Close to You?

“We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you and your stupid compass.” Princess Emma complains. 

He grits his teeth and shifts on his feet to turn toward her, scowling slightly.

“Your Highness, I was _assigned_ to be your guard on this visit, so if you would kindly stop nagging me about my tactics of navigation, I would very much appreciate it.”

The princess, in all of her regal glory, huffs, and he releases a pent up sigh as he turns forward again. 

“We’re lost,” she states. “I’m going to tell my parents that you got us lost when we return to the ship.”

Killian drops his palm to the hilt of his sword. “Princess, the beach shouldn’t be far now. If we can just-“

Thunder booms then, sending his attention to the ever-darkening skies above, and he glances around as the humidity of the day hits him again in a roll of heat and stickiness. He hates the feeling.

A bug buzzes in his ear and the thickness of his uniform becomes difficult to breathe in as he starts walking forward again.

“What if it rains?” Emma asks, her voice nervous.

Killian shakes his head swiftly. “It won’t.”

“But what if it does?” she insists.

He turns around then, feeling more irritated than he’s been all day. He didn’t _ask_ to escort the princess around this bloody island. Liam had insisted that he do it because the queen, apparently, had said that _he_ was who she wanted taking her daughter around the island.

All day, they’ve been stuck together. The princess had it in her mind that she’d be manhandling their trip, and apparently he’s reluctant enough in his position as her guard to go along with her on her quests around the island, wanting to know about birds and plants and everything in between.

They’d come across some rocks with paintings on them and that had made the princess want to go searching for _more_ signs of life.

It’s been the worst day of his life, and that’s even considering the day he’d been initiated into the naval academy.

But, the worst part of it all is that the princess isn’t _terrible_ looking. She’s beautiful, with her golden hair and her soft skin. Her eyes are captivating, and he thinks if she weren’t so bloody stubborn, maybe he could have feelings for her that didn’t involve him considering abandoning her here in the middle of the forested area of the island.

“It won’t rain,” he states firmly. “Now, if you would please join me, I don’t want to disappoint your parents by being obscenely late in our arrival.”

She opens her mouth for a moment and folds her arms to her chest. “Are you serious? You got us _lost_. How are we going to find our way back in time?”

“My brother won’t leave without us, Princess.” Killian bites out. “He knows we’re on our way. He won’t-“

The first fat drop of rain hits him in the forehead as he speaks and he grits his teeth when the princess gives him a hard look. He knows what she’d say if she had time to say it, but he won’t give her the chance.

Killian takes her by the hand and tugs her along with him, calling out over his shoulder, “Run!”

He’d seen the cave as they started on their way back to the beach, and he’ll be damned if he and the princess get caught in the thunderstorm. He doesn’t want to deal with her griping any longer than he has to, and he can only imagine what she’ll be like with wet clothes weighing her down.

They reach the cave in record time, him just barely ushering the princess in as the rain starts to really fall, hard and fast.

She squeaks when it happens, and he barely hears it over the roaring of the storm surrounding them.

He has damp hair and his uniform is heavier with water, but it isn’t as bad as he figures it could be.

The princess is standing in the cave with rain dripping from her hair and the sleeves of her dress. She scowls at him angrily.

“See, this wouldn’t have happened if we just went back the way we came.”

Killian, having had absolutely enough of the princess and her arguments, steps forward, jutting his chin forward.

“Excuse me, but _whose_ idea was it to go so deep into the _uncharted_ island?” he asks loudly, his eyes wide. “ _Whose_ idea was it to stop at the stream and then wander _away_ from it?” She stares up at him as he drifts closer to her and he’s caught realizing how much taller he is than her. “Not me. I wanted to just go five minutes out, not-“

A crashing of thunder cuts him off and he sucks in a deep breath as he watches the light of the lightning cover the princess in it’s bright white glow.

He’d be reminded of an angel were he not in the middle of letting his frustrations out on her.

“Not go searching this island for its inhabitants.” He finishes, sucking in a breath as he prepares for more. He steps even closer, and he notices that she stands straighter. “And, you know what, Princess?”

“What?” she snaps, her expression hard.

“You’re the most stubborn lass I’ve ever met. I can see why you haven’t found a husband. You must treat gentlemen like moths to a flame with your beauty and grace luring them in.” She’s stunned silent, and he isn’t finished, raising his hand to point at her. “But I know you, Princess. You’re cold and relentless and you don’t want to give into them because of that _stubbornness_ I’ve seen since I met you. You invite them in and then force them out because you’re too good for them, aren’t you?”

Emma’s eyes narrow and she doesn’t hesitate to slap him across the face, in time with the next crack of thunder and lightning.

He closes his eyes for a moment and sticks his tongue into his cheek as he turns back to her.

Both of their chests are moving fast, rising and falling even quicker than the sound of the rain hitting the ground outside of the cave.

He finds himself staring at her lips, because while he loathes the fact that she’s been stubborn enough to _not_ want to return to the ship when they had the time and a safe distance to cover, she is a bloody marvel and he swears he’s never been more mesmerized by a woman in his entire life.

“I’m stubborn because I’m _right_ ,” she tells him.

Killian scoffs and steps back, the moment of almost faltering judgment ruined by the words in his ears.

“You may think you’re right, Princess,” he tells her with a shake of his head. “But you need to let people in, otherwise you’ll find yourself alone and without _anyone_ on your side.”

The thunder shutters around them and lightning strikes a short ways out. Rain continues to fall fast and hard, the noise sharp to his ears.

“I’m not going to stay here.” Emma states.

He opens his mouth as he watches her rip the sleeves off of her gown.

“What the hell are you doing?”

The princess continues to strip off layers to her dress, leaving her barefooted and with a tattered gown stopping at her knees.

The fabric of her dress litters the floor of the stone cave and Killian watches her with wide eyes as she ties her hair up above her head with a part of it.

When she’s done, she releases a breath and nods. “All right. Which way to the beach? This way?”

She starts to walk forward, but Killian grabs her by the elbow and turns her toward him. “We’re _not_ walking out in the middle of a thunderstorm. Do you have a death wish?”

Emma blinks at him. “You don’t have to come with me. I can find the beach by myself.”

“No,” Killian tugs her back in when she tries to leave again. “No you can’t. You’ll get lost.”

She gives him a look. “Well, _Lieutenant_ , what do you want me to do? My parents are probably worried sick. We were due back _hours_ ago, but no thanks to you, we got lost instead. We’ve probably ended up wandering around in circles.”

Killian grits his teeth and glances out at the rain as it continues to pound against the earth.

“We’ll wait here until the rain lets up.”

“No.” Emma states, yanking her arm away from him.

She steps out into the rain and while he can tell it’s affecting her, she’s too proud to admit it, holding her fists by her sides.

She’s walking the way they’d come, which is so clearly the _wrong_ way, and he doesn’t think she realizes it.

“Oh, bloody hell.” Killian groans, briefly tossing his head back.

He yanks his uniform jacket off and rolls up his sleeves before hurrying out into the storm with his coat held above his head.

When he reaches the princess, he calls over the sound of the storm, “If you’re going to be foolish, at least cover your head so you might see where you’re heading.”

The princess hesitantly agrees, taking his coat from him and holding it over her head, leaving him the one with limited vision.

She starts to walk in the wrong direction for a moment before he corrects her, physically settling his hands on her hips so he can turn her toward the way he’s certain is right.

Emma blinks up at him, something new in her eyes that he hasn’t seen before. Clearly, the intimate action of maneuvering her around wasn’t something she’d anticipated.

“Apologies,” he says loudly, so as to be heard over the wind and rain. “But the beach isn’t that way.”

For a moment, she hesitates, obviously biting back an argument, but thunder booms and she starts trudging away from him, forcing him to follow her post haste.

Killian keeps a careful eye on the princess, wanting to ensure that she’s kept safe while they foolishly march forward in the middle of a thunderstorm.

They aren’t very far from the cave when a tree is struck beside the princess, flame immediately burning orange as the tall mass limbers over.

He has to rush forward to catch the princess, his arms wrapping around her middle while his feet clumsily slide on the mud beneath him.

They end up in a mass of limbs on the ground. The wind is knocked out of him and he can’t open his eyes quite yet due to the rain smacking him in the face, but she’s warm, the princess, and she doesn’t make any motion of getting up off of him, her damp hair pressed against his neck.

He can’t help but thinking he likes the feeling of her pressed against him, even under the harshest of circumstances. His hands hold her tighter as a roll of thunder echoes around them, as if he’ll be able to protect her from another strike of lightning.

“Can we return to the cave now?” he asks, peeling his eyes open just enough to see her.

Emma pushes against his chest and moves so she’s lying on her back beside him, obviously still frightened.

“No.” She pants out. “We need to keep going. I-“ Emma takes her hand to her face, forcing her hair out of her mouth. “I don’t want my parents to think the worst.”

“Darling, we’re caught in a storm. Surely they know-“

“I’ve run away before,” Emma blurts out loudly. “I’ve run away with a man before and when I returned home, they made me promise I wouldn’t do something like that again.”

“You’re not though.” Killian tells her. “This is the furthest thing from that.”

Emma closes her eyes as a bolt of lightning strikes nearby.

Killian takes his hand through his hair and cups it over his eyes.

He pulls himself to his feet. “Let’s go sit in the cave while we wait it out.”

Emma grumbles a little but nods as she grabs his extended hand, rising to her feet and hesitating a little in the slippery mud.

He holds onto her hand the whole way back to the cave and when they arrive, he sighs, sitting down against the wall with his eyes shut.

The rain is still coming down hard and he opens his eyes to find that the princess is shivering, her arms clutching at each other, her teeth clattering. She refuses to sit, instead standing near the opening of the cave, looking out at the tragedy that is the storm with sad eyes.

It makes him ache, his stomach twisting and his heart stopping, and he pushes up on his feet, moving close to her. She’s holding his coat in her hand, and it’s muddied and soaked, but so are the two of them so he doesn’t mind it.

“I p-promised I’d be back,” she says, rubbing her hands against her bared skin.

Killian nods. “Aye, love. I know.”

He steps forward and takes his coat from her, digging in his pocket for the flint. It might be enough, he thinks, glancing around the cave for wind blown twigs.

He’s lucky to find just enough to produce a small fire, and he does, sitting with his back to the entrance of the cave so it doesn’t blow out, and he looks over his shoulder at the princess, where she stands, still looking so miserably cold.

“Come now, Your Highness. It’s not much, but it’ll warm your hands at least.”

She’s like a skittish wild animal, hesitating as she steps toward him. She sinks down beside him, looking down at the orange flame.

They sit in silence for a while, listening to the rain as it hits the earth and the thunder as it continues to rumble.

He is certain that as soon as it’s over, they’ll be able to find their way. As much as the princess disliked his methods before, he _knows_ he’s right.

“I’m sorry,” she says softly.

He takes his eyes from the fire and looks at her, confused. “Pardon me?”

Emma’s gaze shifts to his and she shrugs. “I’m sorry I took us so far away from the beach. It was my fault we got lost.”

Killian shakes his head. “I don’t-“

“Look,” The princess turns toward him more. He can see regret in her eyes, tears as well, and it makes him feel deeply for her. “You’re right. I’m stubborn and I’m not easy to get along with. So I’m sorry I even thought it would be possible to get back to them now.”

He watches her look down at the fire again, her fingers trembling slightly before she curls them up into her palms.

“What happened?” he asks. She looks at him, silently asking for an explanation. “Before. With the man you ran away with.”

She takes a soft breath and swallows. “He was… handsome and sophisticated and he promised me that we could see the world together. That’s why my parents and I are on this trip now. They wanted to prove to me that I could do it without stealing away in the middle of the night.

“Anyway,” she shakes her head. “I loved him and he told me he loved me, so I was foolish for going with him. He ended up being dangerous and cruel and I couldn’t be around him any longer, so I returned home and my parents forgave me for leaving.”

Killian studies her silently. “Your parents love you a great deal, Princess. I’m sure they can forgive something small like this.”

Emma shakes her head again. “I hope so.”

They’re quiet again. Killian can’t keep his eyes off of the princess, watching her as she warms her hands in her lap.

She’s not too unlike him, he thinks. She wants adventure, to go places she hasn’t been before, to feel things and see things. She just goes about it in a different way than he might like.

He’s filled with guilt about his frustration earlier, when he’d rubbed it in her face that she couldn’t find a husband. It’s not her fault that she can’t connect with the princes that must come to her castle if one man ruined her enough that she barely even trusts _him_.

“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” he tells her. “It wasn’t good form of me to yell and I don’t think you’re incapable of finding love.”

The princess looks at him then with quietness in her eyes that reminds him of the calm at sea.

She licks her lips as she studies him. “No?”

“No,” he finds his voice hoarse and butterflies flutter in his stomach. Killian clears his throat. “It takes time, sometimes; to find someone who understands and will treat you right. And you deserve that, Princess. Don’t settle for less.”

The way she looks at him doesn’t help his increasingly racing heart. Emma nods and it takes everything in him to not break his moral code and _do_ something.

He turns to look over his shoulder at the curtain of rain and sighs, closing his eyes.

“It looks like we’ll be stuck for a while longer.”

“Yeah.”

Killian rakes his fingers through his hair, getting it up out of his face, and moves a little so he isn’t as close to the princess as he had been. He can’t risk his position on the ship because of something he does with the princess.

“Killian?”

He blinks at the sound of his name, not expecting her to even know it.

A small smile curls at her lips and she tucks her loose hair behind her ears.

“Yes, Princess?”

Emma moves then, deliberately going beside him, so close he can smell the perfume of her hair and see the little freckles gracing her cheeks. Her smile remains, her cheeks a rosy hue, and she trails her eyes over his face before locking with his.

“Do you want to kiss me?”

He swallows thickly. “Your Highness, that wouldn’t be proper.”

She shakes her head. “But do you want to?”

The moment he glances at her lips, he knows he’s done for. He can’t say that he _doesn’t_ want to kiss her, because that’s not the truth.

He’s _wanted_ to kiss her since they met, but he’s not one to go around kissing princesses, especially ones who seem to have it out for him.

The princess, being probably the most forward woman he’s ever been around, wastes no time, tugging him in by his shirt, her lips crashing against his furiously.

It takes him a moment to recover, but his hand slides up to cup her cheek and one of her hands grabs at the back of his head, her fingers tangling in his hair.

She tastes sweet, and she’s delicate, so he tries his hardest to keep their kiss gentle and unobtrusive.

When she moves away from him, she licks her lips and smiles brightly.  

“That was…” he shakes his head slightly.

“Thank you. For saving me from the tree. For not giving up on me today. For being patient and listening.”

He nods and his heart sinks to his stomach with understanding. “Aye.”

Emma searches his eyes for a moment and he thinks she’ll kiss him again, but then she turns her attention to the entrance of the cave and she smiles wider than before.

“The sun is coming out.”

Killian shifts and sighs before licking his lips. He rises to his feet after Emma does, the princess going to grab his discarded coat from the ground.

He puts the fire out quickly and they’re on their way within heartbeats.

The air is cooler now that the rain has come, but the tension between them is still very much alive, even if they don’t talk as much.

He leads her to the beach, his compass in hand, and when they arrive, _The_ _Jewel of the Realm_ is waiting for them.

Her parents are standing on the beach, looking frantic, and Liam’s with them, probably talking them out of going on a rescue mission.

Emma smiles at him. “Thank you, Killian. I couldn’t have gotten this far without you.”

He shakes his head, pulling on a weak grin for the princess. “It’s not a problem, Your Highness. I was merely doing my job.”

The princess tilts her head at him and her mouth falls open, but before she can speak, the queen calls for her.

Mother and daughter meet in an embrace, the king stepping forward with relief in his features. The two rulers speak with Emma in hushed tones, and then smiles and kisses are exchanged joyfully.

Killian knows their kiss couldn’t have meant more than what she’d told him: thank you. She was probably just obliging him for his being completely obvious about his attraction to her. It wasn’t _real_.

She’s a _princess_ and he’s nothing to her, really. He’s a simple naval lieutenant on a ship that sails around the realm doing missions for its king.  

He goes to his brother, who smiles and claps him on the shoulder. “I’m glad you’re safe, brother. That was quite the storm.”

“Aye,” Killian agrees, breathing out a laugh. “It was.”

Liam chuckles. “Let’s get you dried off and warmed up, hm?”

As Killian starts for the ship again, he meets Emma’s eyes. There’s something about the way she looks at him that tells him she needs to talk to him, but her parents don’t let her, and he suspects they might not ever.

When _The Jewel_ starts to sail again, heading back to the kingdom of Misthaven after its stop on the uncharted island to appease a curious princess, Killian finds himself on deck at night, gazing up at the stars above.

With the exception of a few crewmen, he’s alone, and he takes the time he needs then to consider the past few days he’s had with the princess.

It’s more obvious to him than ever that his attraction to Emma extends well past their kiss in the cave.

He’s been interested in the princess ever since he’d met her back at the castle, when she’d been dressed in blue, a smile on her lips and a twinkle in her eyes, looking at him as if she had a secret to behold.

The memory of her lips on his is still quite fresh. He can practically still feel her fingers in his hair and taste the raindrops that had slid down from her dripping hair.

He looks away from the night sky and down at the water below and curls his hand into a fist.

Of all of the women in the realm, of _course_ it was this one he’d find himself falling so impossibly hard for.

“Lieutenant?”

He turns at her voice, his heart skipping a beat. He smiles, shaking his head. “Princess, I thought you’d be asleep by now.”

She shrugs. “I couldn’t sleep without seeing you.”

Emma looks beautiful under the glow of the moon and stars. She walks forward, close enough that he could reach out and touch her if he’d like to, and she searches his eyes.

“I don’t want you to think the wrong way about our kiss.” She tells him bluntly.

His smile drops and he shakes his head quickly. “Milady, I swear to you, I don’t-“

The princess silences him with a stern look. “I didn’t mean for it to be a one time thing.”

He tries to suppress the excitement that he feels boiling up inside, threatening to burst out of him, and succeeds, though he smiles and Emma does, too.

She reaches out and takes his hand, moving in so she’s toe-to-toe with him.

“I think you understand me,” she says softly. “And I’m not afraid of that.” Killian searches her eyes and squeezes her hand gently. “So, I want you to kiss me again.” She stares at him and then adds, “Please.”

He can’t help the wry little smile that curls at his lips. “As you wish.”


End file.
